Wizarding Caste System [was: In Defense of Hermione]

[foxmoth at qnet.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 26701

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Rowena Grunnion-Ffitch 
<rowena_grunnion_ffitch at y...> wrote:

>Moral indignation and self
> righteousness may be very satisfying emotions but
> unless allied with *though* and *knowledge* achieve
> nothing.    
> 

Hear Hear! 

borg3892000 wrote

It's a bit different with a house wife.  If the husband paid the 
house wife and provided time-off and a pension, does that mean 
that the husband is the boss?  That would suggest that 
everything is actually owned by the husband, and the wife can be 
given clothes...er, I mean fired.

and Rowena wrote

>      Others on the list have already pointed out the
> absurdity of turning a wife into her husband's
> employee, (so much for equal partnership) the only
> alternative is state subsidized stay at home Moms
> which in turn would lead to state regulation of
> housekeeping and child raising.

Margaret Dean wrote:
Actually, what makes that suggestion absurd (or another reason 
it
does so) is that it reduces a very complex relationship to the
merely economic level . . . which is a =reductio ad absurdum= if
I ever heard one.

	That's my point.  Winky's case clearly shows that House Elves 
also  form emotional and spiritual bonds with their wizard 
families which are very important to them.  Putting things on a 
cash basis will disrupt that, just as it would in marriage.
	  It  wasn't too long ago that wives  were considered chattel also:
vowed to obey, disenfranchised, forbidden to inherit property or 
dispose of it without their husbands' permission,and "clothes", I 
mean divorce, was regarded as the ultimate disgrace. Those 
were legal and social practices not in some reactionary 
dictatorship  but in the USA and the British Isles. Things have 
changed.
	Perhaps  the House Elf/wizard relationship will evolve in a 
similar direction, one in which the partnership becomes more 
equal, without  putting it on an employee/employer basis?
		
Pippin, who would like to see Hermione think outside the box.